Twitter has said that many of the users’ login details which were leaked online are duplicates, spam or inaccurate as it tries to calm security breach fears.

Five posts last night appeared on Pastebin containing what was apparently 55,000 logins and

Twitter has said that an apparent leak of login details may not be as bad as it seems (Pic: PA)

passwords for Twitter, but it was not clear who had posted the information.

However, a Twitter spokesperson told PC Pro that the fears of users may well be unfounded.

She said: ‘It’s worth noting that, so far, we’ve discovered that the list of alleged accounts and passwords found on Pastebin consists of more than 20,000 duplicates, many spam accounts that have already been suspended and many login credentials that do not appear to be linked (that is, the password and username are not actually associated with each other).’

Furthermore, some of the supposed logins are actually email addresses rather than login names, and a small selection of those tested by the publication were either for suspended or non-existent accounts.

The Twitter representative also noted that the company had taken measures to protect any users on the list.

She noted that the microblogging site has now pushed out password resets to accounts that may have been affected, and suggested that anyone else worried about their account simply reset their password.